Seven Libyan soldiers killed in clashes with Islamic State

The Tripoli court that sentenced Seif al-Islam, who is being held by a militia that refuses to hand him over to the central government, also sentenced to death eight others, including former Libyan spy chief Abdullah al-Senoussi.

“He has been something of a war trophy for them…Saif al Islam is too useful to them alive, so they will not give him up without a fight”, foreign affairs columnist with the Irish Independent – Mary Fitzgerald – told.

Charges in the trial included recruiting mercenaries who were given Libyan nationality, planning and carrying out attacks on civilian targets from the air, forming armed groups and shooting into crowds of demonstrators.

What added more confusion to the whole story and totally devalued the very idea of the just and fair trial was that the Tripoli court decision was condemned by Libya’s legitimate government based in the city of Tobruk.

On Saif Gaddafi himself, Fitzgerald said: “He claimed to be concerned about past abuses of his father’s regime – particularly in relation to human rights”. Among the charges he was convicted of were incitement of murder and rape.

Amal Clooney, the internationally renowned barrister who made headlines when she married Hollywood actor George Clooney, made a last-minute bid to pardon Libya’s Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi from the death penalty.

A court in Libya’s capital sentenced a son of Moammar Gadhafi to death in absentia on Tuesday over killings during the country’s 2011 uprising.

Saif al-Islam, who is the eldest of Gaddafi’s nine children, has been held in Zintan since his capture in November 2011. Before the 2011 Libyan civil war, he was believed to be a moderate in comparison to his father. He returned to Gadhafi’s side and vigorously attempted to rally loyalists during the uprising.